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AT LAST! The newest park in Knox County, New Harvest Park, is now open on the site of the former Farmer's Market property on Washington Pike.

The new park is almost 43 acres and has several unique design features, including a "splash pad" shaped like a riverboat and a playground designed to look like a farm. There is a community building and a covered picnic/amphitheater area, as well as walking trails.

We plan to start a "park Vols" program and want to continue to add features and amenities to the park. Please contact me if you are interested in being a volunteer or have a donation or park idea. Remember - this is YOUR park!

Best of all, NEKPA will start their monthly meetings in January, 2007 at the new community center. We are looking for new board members, so send an email to neknox@neknox.org if you are interested.

Many NEKPA members are supporting the proposed Recall Petition that would add a provision to Knox County's Charter allowing recall of elected officials.

Currently there is no provision in Knox County's charter to allow voters to remove an elected official from office. The aim of this initiative is to amend the County Charter to allow for the recall of corrupt or inept government officials should the need arise and if supported by large number of residents. The amendment closely resembles the recall provision that currently exists in the City of Knoxville Charter.

Given the Tennessee State Code's high threshold of required signatures, it would be almost impossible to remove an official without good cause, so there is little potential for abuse of the amendment.

A recall amendment can be added to the ballot so that Knox County voters can vote on the amendment in two ways. The first way would be for County Commission to vote to add it to the ballot. The second way would be to collect 15% of 250,000 signatures asking the Election Commission to add it to the ballot.

There is an online petition asking for County Commission to add it to the ballot. If this fails, volunteers will be collecting signatures so that it can be voted on by the people of Knox County.

If you support this initiative, please sign the online petition asking your Knox County Commissioner to vote for the amendment. This will be the easiest way to get this amendment on the ballot for the votes of Knox County to decide.

You can see frequently asked questions about the recall amendment and sign an informal online petition here:

www.recallamendment.com

After signing the online petition, you may be asked to make a donation to e-petitions. You can just close the window if you don't want to donate - your signature will still be added.

Please pass this along to friends and family if you support this idea, and contact your county commissioners to let them know you would like to see this amendment added to the ballot. If there are sufficient numbers of people willing to publicly support the amendment, it will make it more difficult for County Commission to ignore the will of the voters.